Famous Wings Spice Up Town`s Old Cold Image

BUFFALO — After being buried under an avalanche of bad jokes and worse publicity about its snowfall, the city of Buffalo is spicing up its image.

It is doing this in part by capitalizing on the spreading national popularity of zesty Buffalo chicken wings, which are served with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.

``In my travels, I don`t think there`s any city identified more with one particular food than Buffalo is with chicken wings,`` said Mary Summers, communications manager of the Greater Buffalo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Buffalo, a five-minute drive from the Canadian border and 15 minutes from Niagara Falls, has been experiencing a surge in tourism over the last two years, largely because of aggressive recruiting, its Buffalo wings reputation and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which last year increased cross-border trading and lifted tariffs from consumer goods.

The blue-collar city of 358,000 people in western New York attracted 110 conventions in 1987, slipped to 109 in 1988 and jumped to 215 in 1989. As every booster knows, the more visitors, the more money left behind in local coffers.

Tourist officials said the economic impact of Buffalo conventions in 1987 was $25 million. Last year, that figure rose to $44.1 million. With that kind of money at stake for cities, the competition for landing national conventions is tougher than ever.

In a sense, Buffalo officials are trying to distinguish themselves from the pack by winging it. Whenever they make a presentation to an interested group, they either bring Buffalo chicken wings or arrange to have some delivered from a local supplier.

``When we give receptions, we have to serve wings,`` Summers explained.

``That`s the first thing they ask for.``

When visitors arrive in Buffalo, many of them ask about the origins of the famous wings. Invariably, they are pointed to the Anchor Bar & Restaurant on Main Street, which bills itself as ``Home of the original Buffalo Chicken Wings.``

Some residents say that what is now featured as Buffalo-style chicken had its beginnings in one of the city`s black neighborhoods, but all of the city literature credits Teressa Bellissimo and her Anchor Bar with concocting the Buffalo-style wing in 1964.

Bellissimo and her husband, Frank, opened the Italian restaurant a half-century ago and it still is operated out of the same building by their son, Dominic. Chicken wings, which can be served as an appetizer or the main course, account for 40 to 50 percent of their business.

The old two-story building has the friendly atmosphere of a neighborhood bar. Old automobile tags from various states are nailed to the wall. Behind the bar, just as one first enters, are mounds of baseball hats and other sports memorabilia. The connecting dining room has its own stage for jazz performers. Holding court over it all is Dominic Bellissimo, the local equivalent of Kentucky Fried Chicken`s Col. Sanders.

``In 1964, mother was in the kitchen cooking that night,`` Bellissimo recalled. ``Dad was the host and I was tending bar while a lot of my buddies were drinking. So, I told Dad, `Gee, they`re spending a good dollar. Why don`t we bring out a little something for them to snack on.` ``

That little something to snack on became a big something.

``Mother used to buy those big platters of wings,`` Bellissimo recounted. ``She cut the little flapper off-cut it down the middle and ended up with a flat and a round. Lo and behold, that was it. She improvised the barbecue sauce and they went bananas. She served them with celery and blue cheese.``

But instead of dipping the raw celery in the blue cheese, the hungry patrons dunked the chicken wings. And a new dish was born.

Those friends came back the following week and requested the same thing. And many more have since joined them, as Buffalo chicken wings spread from a regional delicacy to a national dish. Bellissimo, who said his special family sauce recipe remains a secret, sells 72,000 pounds each month. And that`s just in the restaurant. He plans to set up shop at the airport and has signed a deal to take the wings national later this year.

Heat-and-serve Anchor Bar wings will be distributed to supermarkets by Henry Colt Enterprises of Williamstown, N.J. The frozen wings will be labeled medium or hot and also will carry a container of ``suicide sauce`` for those with stronger palates.

``I never dreamt that the wings would get to this point, never,`` said Bellissimo. ``It`s become a business within a business. We`re really an Italian restaurant. But the wings have overpowered everything.``

Well, almost everything.

They haven`t completely overpowered Buffalo`s public image as the snow capital of the U.S.

``It doesn`t matter what time of year it is, people will ask you what the weather is like and if there`s snow on the ground,`` said Summers, the tourist official. She said that goes back to a 1977 Buffalo blizzard, which killed 13 people and damaged hundreds of homes and businesses.

Actually, over the last decade, the accumulated snowfall in Buffalo has not ranked among the top five cities nationally, according to the National Weather Service. It is not even tops in the state, trailing Syracuse and Rochester.

Still, the image of a snowbound Buffalo lingers.

``The first thing people might say to you is, `Buffalo is cold,`

`` Summers said. ``And the second thing out of their mouth is: `But you have chicken wings.` ``